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What a difference a day makes.


JDog
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Yesterday I was in despair. I drove miles round fourteen newly sown fields of spring barley and three of spring beans and there was very little to excite me. Not many pigeons and no flight lines in. Just to make sure that it wasn't a 'time of day' thing I drove round all of the fields again in the afternoon but still nothing. Watching the rugby and the football results is a poor alternative to pigeon shooting.

 

Today I decided that the disappointment of yesterday was just too great and that I wouldn't go out. I had a bit of 'Sunday morning delight' and got out of bed at 11:30 and had a late breakfast a bit of banter and then in a moment of mental gymnastics which I am not normally capable of I persuaded my other half to go shopping on her own. As soon as she was gone I put the dogs and gun in the car and I was gone.......though where I was going was uncertain as I had seen nothing yesterday to give me any hope.

 

I drove to the closest of my farms and the first field I looked at which was spring barley sown last Thursday had 200 pigeons and 50 corvids on it! Oh joy of joy. With no time to waste I got the kit out and set up without even considering flight lines. This is unprofessional I know but I was so keen to get out there I felt that I knew where to go on instinct.

 

There was a sparse hedge but one bush looked to be in the right place so I set up there. This may be obvious in the attached photos. The wind came along the hedge and I put one floater along it 50m from my hide with a few flock-coated shells and I left a very wide gap of 30m before erecting another floater and another group of shells. Pigeons decoyed well from the start and I replaced shells with dead birds as I shot them. It has been a long time since I saw pigeons decoy so well and many which came into the pattern were relatively easy. Those that came down wind were not easy in the slightest.

 

To cut a long story short I had a fantastic three hours in the hide and I ended up with 80 pigeons, 4 rooks, 5 carrion crows and 5 jackdaws picked for a total of 94 head.

 

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I forgot to mention that one of the carrion crows was not dead when my labrador went to pick it and it pecked him hard enough to make him yelp. The Border terrier had no such qualms and ran over and bit it back. He returned to the hide with it hanging off his nose.

Edited by JDog
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